POSITIONING AS A STRATEGY:

INTRODUCTION:

Positioning strategies can be conceived and developed in a variety of ways. It can be derived from the
object attributes, competition, application, the types of consumers involved, or the characteristics of the
product class. All these attributes represent a different approach in developing positioning strategies, even
though all of them have the common objective of projecting a favorable image in the minds of the
consumers or audience.

Positioning is the very important point of marketing strategy and proper positioning is the right potion for
successful marketing management. Product positioning is a crucial decision that a marketer needs to
implement to establish a distinctive and strong image of its product/brand as against its competitors, in the
mind of the target consumer. Very often, a product fails because of wrong positioning.

HOW TO CREATE A STRONG POSITIONING STRATEGY:

It is important for a marketer to bear in mind the following essentials before formulating and executing
his positioning strategy.

 Gather from the market, the current position of the brand or product or service, in the target
consumer's mind.

 Clear thoughts on the achievement of the desired position in the market

 The competitors to be dealt with while establishing that position

 Availability of adequate resources to occupy and sustain that position.

 Relevance of sticking with a particular positioning strategy

 Perfect matching of the creative approach with the chosen positioning strategy

DIFFERENT TYPES OF POSITIONING STRATEGIES:

(1) USING PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS OR CUSTOMER BENEFITS AS A POSITIONING

STRATEGY:

This strategy basically focuses upon the characteristics of the product or customer benefits. For example
if I say Imported items it basically tell or illustrate a variety of product characteristics such as durability,
economy or reliability etc. Lets take an example of motorbikes some are emphasizing on fuel economy,
some on power, looks and others stress on their durability. Hero Cycles Ltd. positions first, emphasizing
durability and style for its cycle.

At time even you would have noticed that a product is positioned along two or more product
characteristics at the same time. You would have seen this in the case of toothpaste market, most
toothpaste insists on ‘freshness’ and ‘cavity fighter’ as the product characteristics. It is always tempting to
try to position along several product characteristics, as it is frustrating to have some good characteristics
that are not communicated.
(2) PRICING AS A POSITIONING STRATEGY:

Quality Approach or Positioning by Price-Quality – Lets take an example and understand this approach
just suppose you have to go and buy a pair ofjeans, as soon as you enter in the shop you will find different
price rage jeans in the showroom say price ranging from 350 rupees to 2000 rupees. As soon as look at
the jeans of 350 Rupees you say that it is not good in quality. Why? Basically because of perception, as
most of us perceive that if a product is expensive will be a quality product where as product that is cheap
is lower in quality. If we look at this Price – quality approach it is important and is largely used in product
positioning. In many product categories, there are brands that deliberately attempt to offer more in terms
of service, features or performance. They charge more, partly to cover higher costs and partly to let the
consumers believe that the product is, certainly of higher quality.

(3) POSITIONING STRATEGY BASED ON USE OR APPLICATION:

Lets understand this with the help of an example like Nescafe Coffee for many years positioned it self as
a winter product and advertised mainly in winter but the introduction of cold coffee has developed a
positioning strategy for the summer months also. Basically this type of positioning-by-use represents a
second or third position for the brand, such type of positioning is done deliberately to expand the brand’s
market. If you are introducing new uses of the product that will automatically expand the brand’s market.

(4) POSITIONING STRATEGY BASED ON PRODUCT PROCESS:

Another positioning approach is to associate the product with its users or a class of users. Makes of casual
clothing like jeans have introduced ‘designer labels’ to develop a fashion image. In this case the
expectation is that the model or personality will influence the product’s image by reflecting the
characteristics and image of the model or personality communicated as a product user. Lets not forget that
Johnson and Johnson repositioned its shampoo from one used for babies to one used by people who wash
their hair frequently and therefore need a mild people who wash their hair frequently and therefore need a
mild shampoo. This repositioning resulted in a market share.

(5) POSITIONING STRATEGY BASED ON PRODUCT CLASS:

In some product class we have to make sure critical positioning decisions For example, freeze dried
coffee needed to positions itself with respect to regular and instant coffee and similarly in case of dried
milk makers came out with instant breakfast positioned as a breakfast substitute and virtually identical
product positioned as a dietary meal substitute.

(6) POSITIONING STRATEGY BASED ON CULTURAL SYMBOLS:

In today’s world many advertisers are using deeply entrenched cultural symbols to differentiate their
brands from that of competitors. The essential task is to identify something that is very meaningful to
people that other competitors are not using and associate this brand with that symbol. Air India uses
maharaja as its logo, by this they are trying to show that we welcome guest and give them royal treatment
with lot of respect and it also highlights Indian tradition. Using and popularizing trademarks generally
follow this type of positioning.

(7) POSITIONING STRATEGY BASED ON COMPETITORS:

In this type of positioning strategies, an implicit or explicit frame of reference is one or more competitors.
In some cases, reference competitor(s) can be the dominant aspect of the positioning strategies of the
firm, the firm either uses the same of similar positioning strategies as used by the competitors or the
advertiser uses a new strategy taking the competitors’ strategy as the base. A good example of this would
be Colgate and Pepsodent. Colgate when entered into the market focused on to family protection but
when Pepsodent entered into the market with focus on 24 hour protection and basically for kids, Colgate
changed its focus from family protection to kids teeth protection which was a positioning strategy adopted
because of competition.

HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LTD:

 HUL was formed in 1933 through a merger of Lever Brothers Hindustan Vanaspati Mfg. Co. Ltd.
and United Traders Ltd.

 Hindustan unilever limited is India’s largest fast moving consumer goods company, touching the
lives of two out of three Indians with over 20 distinct categories of fmcg products.

 It is headquartered in Mumbai, india and has employee strength of over 70000.

 The company was renamed in June 2007 to “Hindustan Unilever Limited”.

 Hindustan Unilever's distribution covers nearly 80% of the retail outlets in India. It has 39
factories in the country.
PRODUCT LINE:

A) HOME AND PERSONAL CARE:

1) Personal wash

Lux Breeze

Lifebuoy Dove

Liril Pears

Hamam Rexona

2) Laundry 3) Skin Care

Surf Excel Fair and lovely

Rin Pond’s

Wheel Vaselin

4) Hair care 5) Oral care

Sunsilk naturals Pepsodent

Clinic Close up

6) Deodorants 7) Colour Cosmetics

Axe Lakme

Rexona

8) Ayurvedic Personal and health care: Ayush

B) FOODS

1) Tea: 2) Coffee: 3) Foods: 4) Ice cream:

Brooke Bond Brooke Bond Bru Kissan Kwality walls

Lipton Knor

Annapurna

C) WATER PURIFIER: Pure it

POSITIONING STRATEGY:

HLL has a large brand portfolio consisting of nearly 110 bands. In every product line, it has built a
number of brands over a period of time. Quite a few brands have come to its fold from the parent
company. It has also acquired several ongoing brands from the market. HLL also vigorously pursues
brand extension strategy. And concurrently, HLL undertakes line pruning and brand restructuring and
consolidation, based on marketing compulsions. HLL is also playing the rejuvenation and re-launch
game. With great benefit the corporate-level endeavors at business expansion and diversification are also
throwing new challenges on the brand strategy front. HLL lends itself for a proper understanding of the
complexity of the brand management task. We shall examine how HLL handles the complex demands in
brand management.

Such an array of brands is the outcome of a conscious corporate strategy by HLL. As a corporate, HLL
wants to be a leader in every one of its businesses and the strategy is to fight on the strength of the
competitive advantage arising from the possession of strong brands. It is this strategy that is getting
reflected in the development of a multitude of strong brands. If we take the business of bathing soaps, as
an example, HLL has the objective of being a national player (not a niche or a regional marketer) and the
leader therein. HLL also wants about 30 per cent of the corporate income to come from this line.

So, HLL opted for the strategy of developing quite a few strong brands in this line, and among them they
cover different market segments and price points. Dove, Lux, Liril, Rexona, Pears and Lifebuoy are the
outcome of such a well planned brand strategy implemented over time. Lifebuoy is 100 years old and
Liril 15 years old. In fact, HLL has about 10 brands of toilet soaps each having good volume of sale to its
credit . The point is that decisions on brand portfolio are a fundamental expression of the company’s
objectives and strategy governing a given business.

HLL Locates Positioning Opportunities:

HLL methodically goes about the task of developing a brand portfolio across a product category. It first
identifies the various positioning opportunities across benefits, target groups and price points. Existing
brads are mapped across these positioning opportunities, and gaps for possible new offers are explored.

The company then estimates the likely volumes for each of the possible opportunity and the financial
viability and sustainability of the propositions in the long term. If some of these gaps look promising,
HLL goes ahead with the plans.

It examines the existing set of brands with the company, the product technologies available, the benefits
that can be provided and other considerations that have a bearing on the company’s long term interests in
the business. Finally, if the company decides to go in for the new offer, a decision has to be taken as to
whether new brands should be created or extensions if existing brands should be preferred or ongoing
brands from the market acquired.

HLL hires brands to capture new opportunities:

Towards the close of the 1990s, HLL found that the germicide segment of the soap market was growing
fast, with RCI’s Dettol antiseptic soap leading it. HLL did not have suitable offer in its stable to capture a
share of this segment. Lifebuoy was not strictly meeting the particular benefit.
HLL knew that launching and developing a new brand would take a lot of time and resources, and the
company would miss the market if it chose this route. HLL did not have the product formula either to
enter this segment. It was in this background that HLL decided to hire the Savlon brand from J&J. Savlon
was a successful antiseptic lotion, a competitor to Dettol lotion. Just as the Dettol soap owed its origin to
the success of the Dettol lotion, HLL assessed that a Savlon antiseptic soap could be successfully
extended from the Savlon lotion.

It entered into an agreement with J&J for the use of Savlon brand name and the product formula, and
launched the Savlon antiseptic soap. HLL very deftly managed successfully new brand launch and
merged as a challenger to Dettol soap. J&J secures a good royalty from HLL for lending the brand. It is a
potentially win-win arrangement for both companies.

CONCLUSION:

Every marketing strategy play an important role but its implementation at right time and at right place
needs to be considered. Hence positioning product in minds of customer and creating strong brand image
based on changing perception requires good amount of research covering large market segment.

Positioning is what the customer believes and not what the provider wants them to believe. Positioning
can change due the counter measures taken at the competition. Managing your product positioning
requires that you know your customer and that you understand your competition; generally, this is the job
of market research not just what the enterpreneur thinks is true.